Where do the geese go?

Wednesday

Jan 23, 2013 at 5:00 PM

Bette McFarren

On a recent morning when the temperature was 19 degrees Fahrenheit, a newspaper worker on the way to work a few minutes before 8 a.m. noticed there were no Canada geese on the La Junta City Park Lake. Where did they go? Did they fly south belatedly the night before?

But no! That afternoon, when the temperature was 55 degrees Fahrenheit, they were back: the whole flock of them. They were standing on the ice, facing the sun. There were small puddles of water on the ice and around around the fountain. A young family was there, the father fishing, accompanied by a toddler. Later, he was joined by the mother, with the older boy. They threw bread morsels to the swans and a few geese gathered by the west shore of the small lake (really a pond).

The next morning the temperature was warmer, 28 degrees, and the reporter noticed a small cadre of swans and geese gathered where the bread crumbs were the previous afternoon. The editor thought the geese probably went to a cornfield (now in stubble) to spend the night.